The present invention pertains to hand tools and, in particular, to hand-held sanding tools for use with a continuous sanding belt.
A popular device for finishing wooden surfaces is the well-known belt sander. This device features a cloth belt having an outer surface covered with grit forming a conveyor belt-like abrasive surface. The belt is mounted between a pair of rotatable cylindrical members, at least one of which is generally driven by an electric motor. Such a sander is convenient and generally preferred to motor-powered abrasive discs that cannot be directed along the grain of a piece of wood and hence provide unattractive cross-grain cuts in the finished surface.
The rather complex apparatus, including motor, which comprises the belt sander, and the fact that the belt is rotated about cylindrical members, limits its effectiveness for certain detail and close quarters finishing tasks. The cylindrical members lift either end of the belt from the underlying surface in arcs, rendering the ends of the belt without abrasive effect. While the belt sander is very effective in a relatively open area, it does not operate well in close proximity to a surface oriented perpendicular to the surface being finished. For example, when sanding a floor, the belt sander often must be discarded near an adjoining wall and the work completed by hand finishing the edges of the floor.
A piece of sandpaper is commonly employed for hand-finishing these edges. It is often advantageous to mount the sandpaper to a block of wood to create a sanding block having a planar abrasive surface. Nails, tacks and/or glue secure the sheet of sandpaper to the block. The sandpaper, which is generally of inferior quality to the commercial grade cloth abrasive belts commonly employed by conventional belt sanders, is often torn from the sanding block due to the combination of its relatively low strength and localized stresses created in the vicinity of the nails or tacks which fasten the paper to the block. Valuable time is lost when the workman must continually fix a new piece of sandpaper to the block. In addition, the sanding block is generally formed of a solid piece of wood that cannot be easily grasped. Over an extended period of time, working with such a tool may cause cramping of the workman's hands and resultant discomfort.